Abstract
We examined the effects of intravenous anesthetics (thiopental, fentanyl and morphine) on the ventricular activation in a canine myocardial infarction model. Thiopental at 5 and 10 mg/kg delayed or abolished the delayed activation in the infarcted zones with slight delay of activation of the normal zones. Fentanyl at 30 μg/kg slightly but significantly prolonged the activation time in both normal and infarcted zones. Morphine at 1 mg/kg did not produce any significant effect. Thiopental, but neither fentanyl nor morphine, inhibited ventricular stimulation-induced arrhythmias. Thus, thiopental, but not fentanyl nor morphine, markedly depressed the delayed activation in myocardial infarction, which may affect and probably inhibits the ventricular arrhythmias in myocardial infarction. It also should be kept in mind that thiopental may have arrhythmogic effects in myocardial infarction.
